Augmenting Multi-Party Face-to-Face Interactions Amongst Strangers with User Generated Content

Abstract

Abstract. We present the results of an investigation into the role of curated representations of self, which we term Digital Selfs, in augmented multi-party face-to-face interactions. Advancements in wearable technologies (such as Head-Mounted Displays) have renewed interest in augmenting face-toface interaction with digital content. However, existing work focuses on algorithmic matching between users, based on data-mining shared interests from individuals' social media accounts, which can cause information that might be inappropriate or irrelevant to be disclosed to others. An alternative approach is to allow users to manually curate the digital augmentation they wish to present to others, allowing users to present those aspects of self that are most important to them and avoid undesired disclosure. Through interviews, video analysis, questionnaires and device logging, of 23 participants in 6 multi-party gatherings where individuals were allowed to freely mix, we identified how users created Digital Selfs from media largely outside existing social media accounts, and how Digital Selfs presented through HMDs were employed in multi-party interactions, playing key roles in facilitating strangers to interact with each other. We present guidance for the design of future multi-party digital augmentations in collaborative scenarios.

Head-mounted Displays, Smartphones, or Smartwatches? -- Augmenting Conversations with Digital Representation of Self

“…), also affording multiple gestures and high micromobility/portability. This highlights a tension between privacy and the ability to share in technology to aid social interaction, wherein one mitigates the other, aligning our findings with prior work [23,31,32]. We noted a phenomenon in which participants changed their viewing behaviour on the basis of the public viewability of the screen and, hence, did not need to control other people's perceptions of their viewing habits.…”

“…The final codes in Table 1 include behaviours previously identified with particular devices, such as grounding with smartwatches [31], showing a smartphone's screen [21], and browsing through users' profiles via head-mounted displays and smartwatches [49]. However, some of these behaviours were exhibited with other devices too, as with showing someone a smartwatch's screen, grounding via a smartphone, and browsing through users on a smartphone.…”

“…The personal boundaries for social interactions are managed online within and between social technologies and networks [12]. Recently, researchers have begun looking also at how people wish to be represented digitally for face-to-face conversations [22,31,32] and how digital representations derived from social media affect these 'real-world' conversations [1]. With regard to user experience, smartphones have been posited to be an ideal platform to augment face-to-face conversations.…”

“…As the participant numbers differ between groups, the data were normalised to be representative. Our participants consisted of 20 males and eight females (M = 27, range [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. Most users were strangers (91%), with 7% being friends and 2% classified as 'known people' (familiar strangers).…”

“…Commenting upon head-mounted displays for collocated interactions, Kytö and McGookin [31] argued that browsing people outside one's conversation group to find potential conversations is one affordance and use case of head-mounted displays in a multiple-user setting (though the perceived impact of this browsing behaviour has yet to be investigated). This is due to the users' browsing behaviours not being publicly available: a user can break social taboos against looking for someone else to talk to while still in conversation.…”